The Bestie Obligation
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Penny's feeling down.  Amy, of course, decides to help her out.  It does, but not in the way Amy had anticipated. Penny/Amy friendship.  Or bestieship.


**Don't even ask. Just don't. :D**

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Sadly.

The day after Bernadette and Amy brought her to the club – and after the music stopped ringing in her head and allowed her to get some sleep – Penny took the snowflake, put it in the little red bag, and stuffed it in her dresser drawer, covering it with shorts. Until the previous night she'd been able to have it close without her wounds being split open, but leave it to Amy and Bernadette to speak of how romantic it is, and how one – of – a – kind Leonard is, and blah, blah, blah.

Of course, Penny couldn't deny they were speaking the truth. That was why she had to hide it.

She went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She'd come home alone, of course, and she'd laid on her bed for hours with a hand over her eyes before the headache subsided and she was able to get to sleep. She hadn't even changed out of the dress, which was now horribly wrinkled. Her eyes were red and her hair a mess. She felt hung – over, even though she hadn't had much to drink.

"Son of a bitch," she said to no one in particular, splashing water on her face. She wiped the drops away from her eyes and went back into her bedroom. Her eyes fell on the bedside table. It looked so bare without the snowflake on it.

"Dammit," she said, sinking down on the foot of the bed and covering her face with her hands in frustration. "Dammit, Leonard…" she struggled for another word and failed to come up with it. "_Dammit!_"

She got up and retrieved the snowflake. It belonged on her bedside table. No matter what was happening now, no matter who he was with, nothing could change the meaning behind the snowflake that September day that he gave it to her. Priya couldn't take that away from Penny. Or Leonard. That day, and that moment was theirs.

There was a knock at her door. Then a second. Then a third.

Sheldon. Penny sighed. She didn't want to deal with him right now. She heard the knocking come again, the familiar three set cadence. But the second time, she realized that "Penny?" wasn't the word following the knocks.

Penny headed toward the door. "Amy?"

"Open up, Bestie!"

Penny felt herself smile. No matter how odd she'd found Amy when they had met, and no matter how weirded out she had been by her on many occasions, Penny was really starting to warm to the idea of the scientist being around. She was amused – and if she was being honest with herself, happy – whenever Amy showed up unannounced. Penny had a feeling that she was Amy's first real friend, and the fact that of all the people in the world, Amy had chosen Penny to befriend, made Penny feel like she actually was a good person, something she'd wondered a lot in the past few months, after her father left, and most recently, while remaining silent on the car ride home with Glenn, staring out the window.

Penny answered the door, smiling. "Amy."

"Hello." Amy marched past Penny, as if they had passed the stage of formality in which she'd have to wait to be invited in. She went to the kitchen area and sat on one of the stools while Penny shut the door and crossed the room to sit on the right arm of her couch. "Are you doing any better today?"

Penny shrugged. "You know, it's a new day, and if time is all it takes to…" she trailed off. "Oh, who am I kidding," she mumbled under her breath, looking back at Amy. "No, still not really."

"That's too bad," Amy said, looking genuinely concerned for a few seconds. "Bernadette and I spent an hour last night planning the evening before kidnapping you."

_And you still needed me to provide the location?_ Had it been Sheldon or Howard, Penny would have voiced the remark, but she sensed that Amy was 'with it' enough, somehow, to pick up Penny's tone and be hurt by it. "Oh, no, Amy. It's not like I don't appreciate the effort. I swear, you guys are so sweet." She looked away, and then back toward her friend. "It's just…these kinds of things…I know you don't fully understand, but it's not something that one night out can just magically heal."

"I resent you saying I don't understand," Amy said. "I have a great understanding of the fact that a former relationship can have lingering feelings that resurface when it appears less likely that the relationship can ever be rekindled. I know it's not overly common, but not extremely rare, either. I have never experienced it myself, so I am unable to draw from personal knowledge in order to comfort you, but I do understand what is happening, and to some extent, why."

Penny nodded slowly. "That makes sense," she said quietly.

"I also understand, partly because Bernadette told me, that one night does not work magic on a hurting heart. So, I brought you something to take your mind off of Leonard…or at least, help with your hurt." Amy pulled a rectangular box out of her pocket and handed it to Penny.

"What's this?" Penny said, turning it over in her hands.

"Can't you guess?" Amy said.

Penny looked at her for a moment, and then her jaw dropped, a small, amused smile coming over her face. "No," she said incredulously.

Amy nodded, smiling. "Open it!"

Penny undid an end of the box and slid the item out. "An electric toothbrush," she said, unable to stop herself from smiling.

"Do you like it?" Amy asked. "I picked the colors based on the slightly mismatched scheme in your bedroom. I figured they were colors that tickled your fancy."

Penny smiled, looking at the toothbrush and then back up at Amy. "Thanks."

"Do you know how to use it?" Amy asked. "It's very simple."

Penny held up her hand before Amy could explain. "I know how to use it," Penny said. "Though I don't think I will."

The smile slid slightly from Amy's face. "You don't like it?"

"No!" Penny jumped up. "That's not what I mean! I mean…I don't need to…" she waved her hand dismissively. "I want to keep it like this, in the box. On my dresser maybe. Or in the bathroom on the sink. I guarantee it'll make me smile every time I look at it."

Amy cocked her head, the smile back. "Why would it make you smile?"

"Because it'll remind me of the time that a quirky neuroscientist tried to make me feel better over a situation that really sucks," Penny said. "And it'll remind me of how it worked." She smiled. "Thank you, Amy."

Amy grinned broadly. "You're welcome!" She declared, looking proud of herself.

"Do you want to stick electrodes in my brain and see if you can make a rhesus monkey smile?" Penny asked, only half joking.

Amy's eyes widened. "I left the electrodes at my place!" She said, looking panicked. She moved quickly toward the door. "I'll go get them, wait here! And make sure you stare and the toothbrush so you're in just as good of a mood when I get back!"

Penny laughed in spite of herself. "Will do," she said, even though Amy was already gone. She looked back down at her gift.

Amy was something else. But that something else was what Penny needed to keep herself smiling right now.

And it didn't hurt that Amy appeared to be Penny and Leonard's biggest fan.

**Let me know what you thought! And I don't get review alerts anymore for some reason, but I'll check this story on my profile page so I can still reply to the reviews. :D**


End file.
